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One last shot for Bookout

Bill Bookout is taking his case to the U.S. Supreme Court. At least, that’s his plan.

Bookout, the former owner of Oceano Nursery, has long argued that annual flooding of Highway 1 is to be blamed on Caltrans crews and five other government agencies.

After losing an appeal to the California 2nd District Court of Appeals on June 28, Bookout brought his case to the California Supreme Court. However, the court decided not to hear the case, upholding the appellate court determination that Bookout’s lawsuit fell outside of the statute of limitations.

“This is now binding precedent for the statute of limitations on inverse condemnation flooding cases,” said Greg Connell, one of Bookout’s attorneys.

Meanwhile, Bookout has been scooping up Internet domain names vaguely reminiscent of official web sites for local and state politicians, as well as judges who have ruled against him over the course of his lawsuit. For example, californiasupremecourt.com, governorbrown
.net, and senatorsamblakeslee.com now link to photos, videos, and blog posts Bookout made to support his case.

Bookout said he’s willing to sell the domain names to anyone who wants them. But he’s set the price tag to match the judgment against him: currently $200,000.

“I’m done,” he said. “What I’m trying to do is salvage my business.”

With a loss at the state Supreme Court, Bookout’s only hope seems to sit with the highest court in the country. Though he hadn’t filed anything as of press time, Bookout said he absolutely plans to push his case in Washington, D.C.

“It’s going to cost me some money, but the thing is, I am not going to walk away from the facts of this case,” he said.

At the same time, he’s adamantly claiming his story has the potential to be national news.

And if all that fails—if Bookout loses again in the last court available to him—he said bankruptcy will be the only option.

“That’s inevitable,” he said. “I’m probably going to have to do that anyway.”